Review: ReAct's PRELUDE TO A KISS Lacks Spark

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, ReAct performs "Prelude to a Kiss" in this updated, ethnically diverse adaptation. Twenty-somethings Peter and Rita fall in love and decide to get married after six weeks. Their basking in the honeymoon phase of their relationship takes a turn when a mysterious man at the wedding asks to kiss Rita, causing a Freaky Friday-esque soul switch that promises a lot of hilarity. Unfortunately, due to lack of chemistry between the lovers along with serious pacing issues in the script, Peter and Rita's love (which should be beyond skin-deep) falls flat.

The real downfall of the performance for me was the lack of chemistry between Rita and Peter. I found it very hard to be entranced by Peter's love for Rita's spirit and soul inside the body of an elderly man when Peter and Rita did not first convince me that they were in love.

The first 20 minutes or so of the play gives the audience the backstory of Peter and Rita's meet-cute. Peter is awkward, and Rita is dark. They talk about Freud and their mutual skepticism of life's purpose-- you know, typical jaded college-student talk. But Peter behaved around Rita like an uncomfortable teenage boy, and bizarrely found Rita's lack-of-lust for life and insomnia spellbinding.

One problem I had with the script was that the two characters get married after only knowing one another for six weeks. A huge thematic element of the story is the concept of "can you really ever know a person?", and it's difficult for that theme to come through when Peter did not really ever know Rita. Their relationship was less than two months old when they wed, so this idea that Peter knows Rita better than anyone else--including her loving family--is absurd.

The script also seemed to have a lot of unnecessary exposition in the form of soliloquy. After every 15 minutes or so, Peter would stand under the spotlight to explain his feelings to the audience. These moments did not humanize him but rather made him seem even less connected to his surroundings or to his wife.

This multi-ethnic cast of characters had some hysterical members within it. Ai Nguyen was quite funny as the old-man-inside-Rita's-body Rita, especially while utilizing quite odd, anachronistic pet names like "puppy, puppy" and checking out her own chest in a bikini. Chip Wood's portrayal of Dr. Boyle was such a classic TV dad: stern, confused, and forever embarrassing his daughter with his loveable doofiness. I could not take my eyes off Tee Dennard as the Old Man, for he brought something mythical behind those sad eyes.

Although this rehashing did not particularly work for me, all told the show did make me laugh and was a fun night of local theatre. I give ReAct's "Prelude to a Kiss" 2/5 stars.

"Prelude to a Kiss" runs though January 31, 2016 at West of Lenin. For tickets and information, call ReAct's box office at 206.364.3283 or visit www.reacttheatre.org.

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